Watching Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the Nationals reminded me of what’s going to ultimately take this team down. It isn’t going to be like past years where the starting pitching got us bludgeoned to death (the rotation will be fine outside of Pelfrey’s fifth start), or the lack of hitting asphyxiated us (and I gotta say that Lucas Duda is growing on me). Nope, this defense up the middle is going to kill us with a thousand paper cuts.
Ruben Tejada showed some suspect range and some suspect skills on two straight chop hits up the middle early on, and then the winning run scored when Daniel Murphy threw high on what should have been an inning ending double play. Maybe if past regimes had stuck Murphy at second base and let him stay there back in 2010, the current regime wouldn’t be in the predicament they’re in. If this defense is as bad as everyone says it’ll be, and if the worst spots are up the middle, and if Andres Torres can’t play 150 games, this might be the slowest most painful death a season has ever had.
It might be quicker if Frank Francisco continues in April what he’s been in March. He’s getting annihilated, and I have a bad feeling that trusting him to close so much as a window would result in a slow painful death of another kind … pneumonia.
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